A few words about a few good men

This is a picture I snapped on my N95 at the Museo del Prado in Spain while the security guard wasn’t looking. The man is Caesar Augustus.

The history of the Roman Empire is something that has always fascinated me, even as a little boy. I remember my first visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and seeing these 3 meter tall men who looked powerful, honorable and simply perfect. Around that time I started (more like attempted) body building, but that isn’t important right now. What is important is that the philosophy of the Roman empire was to understand, learn and return to Rome the various cultures of the countries they conquered. Knowledge was a currency more valuable than any material wealth. Learning was celebrated.

Before the S60 summit took place Phil Schwarzmann contacted me and asked if I would like to go. I wanted to, but it is something I couldn’t afford. This wasn’t important to Phil, he had a list of several bloggers whom Nokia (NYSE: NOK) was going to invite on an all expense paid trip just to attend. I just happened to be on that list.

Matthew Miller from ZD|Net and Michael Jerz from My-Symbian were nothing but names who I would often see in blue and underlined. I met Rafe from All About Symbian in Las Vegas during the 2007 CES, but our brief encounter lasted less than 15 minutes. After 3 whole days I can safely say that these men are no longer hyperlinks, but they are my friends.

Matthew is an American like myself who has lived on both sides on the coast. His love for mobile extends beyond S60, but he is committed to owning an E90 one of these days. He has a podcast called Mobile Tech Roundup where he talks about everything from cell phones all the way up to tablet pc’s.

Michael Jerz is from Poland and his love for mobile also extends past S60. I played with UIQ for the very first time on his Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) P990i. He owns a red Nokia E90 that is practically his third arm. His summit coverage isn’t up yet, but I bet it has something to do with the thousands, yes thousands, of pictures he took. He has been writing about communicators since the first one was introduced.

Rafe is from the UK and lives in the country side about an hour away from London. He wants to see Symbian remain the mobile leader regardless of whoever builds the UI on top. His website publishing days began back in University, similar to myself, when PSION owned all of Europe. We had fun bashing each others pronunciation of words, but I’ll always be envious that I don’t know how to speak proper (UK) English.

Darla Mack and Steve Litchfield were invited to the event, but couldn’t make it. I deeply regret not getting to spend a few days with you guys. Darla and I met at CES 2007 and spent a day together in New York for the Evening with S60 event. I have yet to meet Steve, but I’ve been watching his "Smartphones Show" podcast since starting Ring Nokia.

When I accepted Phil’s invitation to Spain I did it because I wanted to see Spain. Selfish I know, but I’m known for being an asshole so I may as well say it. What ended up happening was I got the opportunity to make friends with people who have the same fire in their hearts that I do when it comes to mobile phones. The location of the S60 summit quickly became irrelevant after the first hour of hanging out with my fellow writers.

Nokia really does live up to it’s ad slogan of connecting people and I want to take the time to thank them for it. Thank you to Phil for the invite and thank you to Matt, Rafe and Mike for the great couple of days in Madrid. Like the Roman’s, I’m going to take everything you have taught me and incorporate it into my writing style and point of view about the mobile industry I proudly consider myself a part of now.

I can not emphasize how awesome the event was and how sad I am that Steve and Darla couldn’t make it. Expect my coverage to go up sooner rather than later, I’m still recovering from the massive 9 hour shift in time zones.